Best Coffee Shops in Minneapolis-St. Paul

Roasting in West St. Paul since 2014, Backstory operates a cozy retail spot on-site, an airy co-working space in Minneapolis’s North Loop, and a café at Bloomington Central Station. The only question is, are you more of a Wayfinder (zippy and lighter-roasted with nuance), a Narrator (balanced chocolate and nutty flavors) or a Legend (creamy, sweet and milk-chocolaty)?

Browse the racks at Caydence Coffee and Records in East St. Paul's Payne-Phalen neighborhood while you sip a Comeback Kid (cold brew, lavender cream, and horchata). Don’t forget to check out the live music calendar, which features local bands, lots of all-ages shows, and even the occasional bluegrass jam.

Closed Mondays. 

If you like your coffee with a side of noise rock, Disco Death Records is the spot for you. Grab a stack of LPs from your favorite Krautrock, post-punk, or bossa nova (why not?) artists, and slap down $6.66 for a house special Satan: cold brew, horchata, maple, and bitters.

Hometown hero Dogwood Coffee has been churning out some of the best local beans since 2010, and lives by the motto “coffee for others.” Community is just as important as caffeine here, with a focus on do-good brand partnerships, incubator programs and international coffee-buying relationships. 

The drinks are no slouch, either; grab a Zamboni cold brew or a perfectly proportioned gibraltar (half espresso, half steamed and textured milk).

This cozy spot near Loring Park serves as a community hub and a fundraiser for the youth of the nonprofit Futsal Society, which provides soccer opportunities and training to families who can’t afford lessons or traditional club membership. 

The straightforward menu comprises tasty, classic drinks and light snacks that pair perfectly; after all, the shop’s motto is “No Teamwork, No Coffee.”

Free parking is available in the designated Basilica lot under I-94. 

The vibes are strong with this one — the kind of place many folks dream of having within walking distance of home. Folks in Minneapolis’ Howe neighborhood are the lucky ones with this third-place-style spot. 

Start your morning with a pre-work cortado and a breakfast sando, take a midday break with a brownie bite and a cafe au lait, and call it a day with an affogato of fresh espresso poured over Sebastian Joe’s ice cream.

There’s nothing bitter about Five Watt Coffee — just the house-made ones used in some of its signature drinks. Coriander bitters get splashed into espresso, milk, vanilla and black Hawaiian sea salt for the crowd-fave Kingfield, and gin bitters marry basil syrup and nitro cold press before being topped with cream in the Gin Basil Smash. 

Want to recreate the high-wattage at home? Grab a bag and a bottle of bitters from one of several Minneapolis locations.

For a quick trip around the wide world of coffee, visit one of FRGMNT’s Minneapolis locations or its cavernous outpost in Eden Prairie's One Southwest Crossing building, which is always full of laptop-wielding telecommuters. 

This quality-obsessed multi-roaster cafe brings in beans from some of the best domestic and international roasters, including Spain’s Nomad Coffee, Denmark’s Coffee Collective, South Africa’s Father Coffee, and North Carolina’s Black and White Coffee Roasters. 

Grab a masterfully dialed-in single-origin espresso and an old-fashioned from Cardigan Donuts or an almond croissant from Honey & Rye, and you’ve got a one-way ticket to a very good day.

Want to get weird? Misfit Coffee is the place. Sure, you could get a black coffee or a classic cappuccino, but why would you when there’s a Nana Cold Brew on the menu? (The drink comprises cold brew, banana — yes, banana — vanilla, and oat milk.) 

Far-out rotating specialty drinks make a trip to this Near North Minneapolis café a perpetual adventure. A few of their many standouts have included a smoked vanilla peach latte, a "steamy date night" (dates, walnuts, oat milk, espresso and pistachio), and cold brew-infused riffs on an Arnold Palmer and Wisconsin-style old-fashioned. 

Anyone who lives just outside the metro area and closer to the St. Croix River should also look for Misfit's Saturday-only location at Lindström Public Market. 

Great coffee should be accessible; that’s the flame that fires Roots Roasting’s passions. Inspired by pre-industrial American coffee traditions and fueled by a passion for crowd-pleasing, medium-roasted beans, Roots has been filling cups in St. Paul's Mac-Groveland neighborhood since 2018, and donates 5% of its profits toward combating slavery conditions on coffee plantations in Brazil.

Co-owner Sam Kjellberg’s initials are where SK Coffee gets its name, and the former hobbyist barista’s passion for excellence is seen in every detail in the beautiful cafés and unforgettable single-origin coffee offerings. Whether you like your coffee sweet, smooth, bold, or unique, this quality-focused but unpretentious company has you sorted. 

We can taste the love that goes into every microlot at their Whittier, Vandalia Tower and downtown Minneapolis locations, and we also love the spiced latte’s warming blend of cinnamon, clove, and star anise.

You’re never too young to start hanging out in cafés, and roaster-retailer Sovereign Grounds has been proudly kid-friendly since 1995. The spot’s large indoor playroom is a great place for little ones to burn off their natural energy levels (no caffeine necessary there) while parents sip the house-special Turkish- or Anatolian-roast coffee.

Since opening its first Whittier café in 2000, Spyhouse Coffee has been something of a standard-bearer of Twin Cities specialty coffee, with lighter roasts, origin-sourced microlot offerings, cocktail-inspired tasting notes, and quirky spaces that invite guests to linger and look around. With six shops in the metro and one in Rochester, you never have to wander too far afield to find a great cup of its signature Orion blend.

Don’t let the limited menu or hours at Stepwise Coffee Roasters deter you. Great things come in smaller packages. The brand’s homey, minimalist, cozy tasting room space opened in 2023 and serves top-notch coffee without making much of a fuss.

The first Vitality Roasting brick-and-mortar shop opened in the downtown Minneapolis skyway in 2021. Since then, the roaster-retailer has become a stalwart on the roasting scene in the Cities, including a daily location on Como Avenue. Light your morning up with a cup of single-origin coffee, or take it easy with the brand’s delicious half-caff.

What if coffee could cure youth homelessness? That’s the mission behind Wildflyer, a nonprofit that offers job training and employment opportunities to young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are facing housing insecurity. 

Over a four-month period, youth cohorts learn hard skills such as drink preparation and money management, as well as soft skills such as customer service and interview acumen. The young staff also receive employment counseling, networking opportunities, and the benefits of working in a tight-knit, community-centered environment.

Come for the iced mocha, stay for the Smallest Museum in St. Paul at Workhorse Coffee Bar in South St. Anthony. (The “museum” is a converted firehose cabinet that features fun, funky, and fascinating public art and history exhibits.) Classic coffees, treat-yourself milkshakes, and scratch-made quiche are another kind of art at this unassuming neighborhood spot.